'Hobbit' was an iodine-deficient human, not another species, new study suggests

Date:

September 28, 2010

Source:

University of Western Australia

Summary:

A new paper is set to re-ignite debate over the origins of so-called Homo floresiensis -- the 'hobbit' that some scientists have claimed as a new species of human. Researchers have reconfirmed their original finding on the skull that Homo floresiensis in fact bears the hallmarks of humans -- Homo sapiens -- affected by hypothyroid cretinism.

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Multivariate analyses of quantitative features of Homo floresiensis in relation to cretins, unaffected humans and chimpanzees. Individuals are represented for each specimen by the coloured symbols above: H. floresiensis (LB), young adult cretins (Y cretin), older cretins (O cretin), H. sapiens, and P. troglodytes (Pan). Vectors are shown for each variable analyzed in the study. The direction of each vector indicates the association with each axis and the length indicates the strength of the association.

Multivariate analyses of quantitative features of Homo floresiensis in relation to cretins, unaffected humans and chimpanzees. Individuals are represented for each specimen by the coloured symbols above: H. floresiensis (LB), young adult cretins (Y cretin), older cretins (O cretin), H. sapiens, and P. troglodytes (Pan). Vectors are shown for each variable analyzed in the study. The direction of each vector indicates the association with each axis and the length indicates the strength of the association.

A new paper is set to re-ignite debate over the origins of so-called Homo floresiensis -- the 'hobbit' that some scientists have claimed as a new species of human.

The University of Western Australia's Emeritus Professor Charles Oxnard and his colleagues, in a paper in PLoS ONE have reconfirmed, on the post-cranial skeleton, their original finding on the skull that Homo floresiensis in fact bears the hallmarks of humans -- Homo sapiens -- affected by hypothyroid cretinism.

The remains, allegedly as recent as 15,000 years, were discovered in 2003 in the Liang Bua caves on the Indonesian island of Flores by archaeologists seeking evidence of the first human migration from Asia to Australia.

When Professor Oxnard and fellow Australian researchers suggested in a 2008 paper that the skull showed evidence of endemic dwarf cretinism resulting from congenital hypothyroidism and were not a new species of human, their claim caused controversy.

In order to test their thesis, in their new paper Professor Oxnard and his team summarised data on the rest of the skeleton and mathematically compared the bones of cretins in relation to chimpanzees, unaffected humans and H. floresiensis. They used two methods with different statistical bases: principal components analyses (PCA) and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS).

Their work confirms the close grouping of H. floresiensis with the hypothyroid cretins, and the clear separation from both modern humans and from chimpanzees. This leads them to conclude that the Liang Bua remains were indeed most likely cretins from a population of unaffected H. sapiens. They have, further, provided a series of predictions for the further testing of the cretin hypothesis.

"This is consistent with recent hypothyroid endemic cretinism throughout Indonesia, including the nearby island of Bali," Professor Oxnard said.

"Cretinism is caused by various environmental factors including iodine deficiency -- a deficiency which would have been present on Flores at the period to which the dwarfed Flores fossils are dated."

Professor Oxnard has received the Charles R. Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Physical Anthropology; was honoured as the dedicatee on a book Shaping Primate Evolution, Cambridge University Press; and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal of The University of Western Australia.

His co-authors in his most recent paper are Professor Peter Obendorf, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne; and Professor Ben Kefford, Centre for Environmental Sustainability, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology Sydney.

University of Western Australia. "'Hobbit' was an iodine-deficient human, not another species, new study suggests." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 September 2010. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928025514.htm>.

University of Western Australia. (2010, September 28). 'Hobbit' was an iodine-deficient human, not another species, new study suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 2, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928025514.htm

University of Western Australia. "'Hobbit' was an iodine-deficient human, not another species, new study suggests." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928025514.htm (accessed August 2, 2015).

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